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Wednesday, 17 May 2017

China to invest $1.2bn in Belarus

Chinese businessmen have plans to invest more than $1.2 billion in the Belarusian food processing industry, according to the Belarusian Agriculture Minister.

One point two billion, surely that can’t be right, that’s like 2% of the GDP and would buy a lot of Belarussian dairies and sausage factories.

However, it was reported on the Belarus state-owned national news agency, БелТА, so it must be true, who then go on to say that one of China’s largest companies have signed a document declaring their intention to invest around $1 billion in the Belarus economy.

The Belarussian Agriculture Minister is reported as saying China is interested in products made in Belarus as they want to get them from a country they trust as part of their import substitution effort.

Not entirely sure how importing food from another country constitutes import substitution but one planned project is for China to invest $200 million in the construction of facilities to produce milk in Vitebsk Oblast then ship the processed milk to China.